Friday, 19 April 2013

Something different or the Adventure of the Manticore part 1

﻿

﻿

﻿

As I said last week, this post is very off the beaten track from wargaming since I have decided that while this blog is mainly focused on the wargaming aspects of my hobbies it will have elements from the other aspects as well. Sherlock Holmes is one of my favourite literary characters, don't ask why for I'm not quiet sure myself. But he has always been a great interest for me, and since there are so many Sherlock Holmes stories these days that weren't written by the original author I thought I might make contribution myself.

So here we go, the title is:

The adventure of the Manticore

Both myself and my friend Sherlock Holmes do not hold positive views
on the supernatural or the mythical. And there have been several cases in which
my friend has cleared up the false belief that a certain death or other crime
was brought about by supernatural means. The two foremost of these would be the
case of the hound of the Baskervilles which I believe I have put on record
before, and that of the adventure of the Manticore.

This particular case occurred about a year after Holmes’s return when
I was sharing rooms with my friend in Baker Street. I had been out for a long
walk since Holmes had begun a chemical experiment, which I preferred to be out
of the house for. When I arrived back I found my friend lying back upon the
sofa and surrounded by wreaths of black foul smelling smoke, which swirled all
about the room and seemed to strike out towards me as I entered it.

As I did so Holmes sat up and cried, “ah Watson, your timing is very
unfortunate, for you have missed quite an interesting client and an even more
interesting story”. At hearing this, I must admit I was greatly disappointed
for as I have said many times before one of my greatest pleasures in life at
that time was the following of Holmes’s cases. Seeing the look of
disappointment on my face Holmes grinned and said, “do not fear Watson, the
case is far from over as it now stands, in fact I expect that we should have
another encounter with the rather unusual, Mr. Feldech, before much time has
passed.” At this Holmes and I took up apposing arm chairs and Holmes began to
narrate his encounter with the unusual and mysterious Mr. Feldech.

“Well I had just begun to strain my solution of carbon sodium, when
a loud knock interrupted me.” Holmes paused and took a long draught of smoke
before continuing, “I attempted as hastily as possible to clean away some of
the papers from the visitors chair and to postpone my experiment. After which I
called for the visitor to enter and the door swung open to reveal a truly
unique specimen of humanity. He was about 6ft tall dressed in a recently
cleaned long black coat, red waist coat and white shirt. He had a long triple
scar that wheeled down from the centre of his brow down the side of his face to
stop at the base of his neck. He had long dark hair tied back in a long plat
which fell to his waist and was banded with six silver loops. He wore no gloves
but the lack of tanning on his hands which was not present on his face, showed
that was not his usual habit. His boots were black leather with silver toe caps
which were frequently polished. His hands themselves were a most interesting
study, he possessed large rough hands with thick fingers which bespoke manual
labour at some point in his life, but, the interesting point was that the left
one was burned up the right side from thumb to wrist as if by some acid or
venom, but what sort I was surprised to find I could not identify. His
complexion was tanned to excesses bespeaking time spent abroad and his eyes
were an unusually bright shade of green.”

“Upon entering the room he sat down in the chair and looked me over
as if he was not quite sure as to whether to confide his case in me or not. But
after a few rather awkward minutes he eventually made up his mind: ‘Mr. Holmes’
he began, in a rather common accent despite his refined clothes, ‘I have come
to consult you upon a matter of great importance to me, my household and my remaining
family. Three lives have been lost already, and I fear for not only my own life
but also the lives of those I care for.’ ‘Please Mr.?’ ‘Feldech’ ‘Mr. Feldech I should like the
full account of these events in full with all details as precise as possible’
said I. ‘I will do my very best Mr. Holmes not miss anything that could
possibly have any bearing upon the matter. Firstly you should know that I am an
owner of a museum of unusual items from around the globe. Every one of these
items I value very highly for I collected many myself from around the world and
the others I got often at great price.’ ‘Wait a moment, I can tell from your
accent that you were not born into a wealthy family but by your manner of dress
I see that you have accumulated a great deal of money recently and I go on the
assumption that it had something to do with the manual labour which I judge from
your hands you at one time performed, but what was the source of your recent
wealth?’ ‘Ah well, at the time of my birth my family were very poor but were in
the process of returning to England after having lived in India for a long
period of time, after arriving in England I managed to gather enough money to
live on through factory work and when I reached the age of 16 I was fortunate
enough to be taught in reading, writing and other basic forms of education by a
generous employer since I had show some fine leadership skills. Through this
basic education I eventually arose to a much higher position with a decent
income and I chose to try my luck with gold mining in Australia where I eventually
controlled and still do several acres of good mining land which I hired men to
carry out labour on so as to make the most of it. And so after several years I
at last returned to England and set myself up in a fine business and my family and
I rose to a high position in the local area of the Dorset countryside.

“’After that I took to traveling and collecting exotic curios.’
‘Thank you, pray continue’. ‘Well, I have recently taken possession of an item
rumoured to be one of the stinging spines of a Manticore’’’.

“A Manticore?” I interrupted.

“A Manticore is a mythical creature from India”, replied Holmes, in
a slightly impatient tone. “It is rumoured too poses the face of a man, three rows
of teeth, the body of a tiger and a tail of poisonous spines, which can be
fired a great distance at its victims, which it devours whole. Its call is also
meant to sound like a great trumpet and that all wise creatures fly at the
sound of it.” I must admit that upon hearing this description I was slightly
disturbed by the image of the creature which formed in my mind.

“And now”, said Holmes interrupting my thoughts and breaking the
image, “if you will allow me to continue Watson. At this statement from my
client I was inclined to smile despite myself, and my visitor couldn’t help but
notice it. ‘I see you are sceptical Mr. Holmes, I was also rather sceptical at
first myself, but I was soon put right. There was a small sack of poison at the
base of the spine. The poison within was completely unique. It burns the skin
like acid and is deadly when ingested.’ He glanced down at his hand as he
mentioned the venom's acidic qualities and gave a tense smile. ‘As you can see
Mr. Holmes, I myself was the one to discover the venom's acidic qualities.’ He
then reached into one of the inside pockets of his coat and produced a piece of
paper and a letter. ‘This Mr. Holmes is a photograph of the spine and this is the
letter I received two weeks ago regarding its sale’”.

Holmes then paused and drew from his own pocket two objects which I assumed
were the self same letter and photograph. “Here Watson, have a look at this, it
may interest you” said Holmes and handed me the photograph. It was of a long
sharp spine, like that of the porcupine only much larger and at the bottom of
it was a small sack which I assumed from the scale provided in the picture was
about the size of the end of my thumb. This I assumed contained the venom which
had left the burn upon the hand of Holmes’s recent visitor. Another feature of
the spine that I found curious was that while the lower part was rather pale
and slightly translucent the sharp end was tipped with a black liquid which I
assumed was the venom.

“I must admit Watson, that my scepticism was set back a little by
seeing this,” went on Holmes, “but the letter may also arouse your interest,
here, read it.” I took the letter had unfolded it. It was written on rather
thin paper which and been handled with very little care for it was crumpled and
torn on one or two edges. It read as follows:

Dear
Mr. Feldech,

I have been informed by a
friend of mine that you are a collector of unusual and unique items and that
you are prepared to pay handsome amounts in return for such items. I have
recently come into possession of such an item; it is one of the stinging spines
of a Manticore. There is photograph of it enclosed and hope it arouses your
interests.

If it does so then you may
contact me at the following address, and we will discuss payment and exchange.
I do however have a request to make, if you do not choose to accept my offer
you shall mention this to no one. And I also request that you come to the
address provided alone.

You may contact me at 45th
Coden Lane West London.

“I enquired from Mr. Feldech as to whether he accepted the offer”,
continued Holmes. “’I saw no harm in the matter’ said he, ‘so a week and five
days ago I took a cab to the address listed and found to my surprise that the
place was a deserted builders yard. I walked slowly and cautiously into the
approximate centre of the yard and stood there for several minutes before
turning to go, thinking that the letter must have been a prank, then I heard
the click of a revolver being cocked from behind me. ‘Do not move Mr. Feldech’.
Came a voice from behind me which I assume belonged to the person who had just
cocked the revolver. It was an English speaking person though his voice was
tinged fairly strongly with an Indian accent. ‘Do not even turn around’
continued the unseen Indian man, ‘I mean you no harm, but I have my reasons for
wanting to keep my identity to myself.

“’’Now walk slowly over to the far fence’. I did so Mr. Holmes in a
very great state of confusion and unease as you can well imagine. ‘Now tell me
if you are here to accept my offer or not’. I did so. ‘Good, turn your head
slightly to the left, now, you see the table over there and the paper packet on
it, now walk over to that table.’ During all of these movements Mr. Holmes I
was straining my eyes to the very edge of my field of vision in an attempt to
see the man who was holding me to his commands. I am afraid that I was
disappointed; I only caught one slight glimpse of him. He seemed to clad all in
long black flowing clothes. That was all I saw of him Mr. Holmes. ‘Now’, said
he, ‘place the amount you are prepared to offer me in exchange for the ‘item’
upon the table and then pick up the paper packet’. I placed £1000 upon the
table and lifted the packet off the table. ‘Good, now turn to face the exit of
the yard and walk out, slowly’. I did so and as soon as I was outside the yard
I walked hurriedly up the street and hailed a cab. When I returned to my house
I and my friends and colleges began to run some tests on the spine. It now
occupies pride of place at the centre of my museum. That Mr. Holmes was the end
of that experience, but only the beginning of a series of far more distressing
and unpleasant events’.

“At this my client placed his head in his hands and breathed in a
slow steady manner as if endeavouring to clam himself. ‘I am sorry Mr. Holmes, I
shall be alright,’ said he in a voice which had a faint under tone of grief. ‘It
was but a week ago and five days after my purchasing of the Manticores’ spine that
my Father was found dead upon the lawn of me and my families’ estate’. ‘The
source of death?’ I enquired. ‘There was none found. And there were no marks
around the estate lawn or gardens. But it was only three days after that, that
my brother Robert was found sprawled dead at the foot of the grand staircase.
There were no marks around or on the body and no one in the house saw or heard
anything. And then finally just this morning my sister Jane was found dead in
her bed where it seemed she had been lying all night.’ At this Mr. Feldech
stopped again and went through the breathing motions I mentioned earlier before
continuing. ‘But unlike both my father and brother she had several wounds upon
her, one from it seemed the claws of some large cat, similar to the scar on my
own face but smaller and far shallower. Also several things had been knocked
over in the room and a note had fixed by a knife to the internal side of the
door. It read: Release my dart, lest you suffer this fate.’

“’Was anything heard in the night’ I enquired.

“’Nothing.’

“’Is there any way into the room besides the door?’”

“’Yes, the bedroom window, but my sisters’ room is three floors up
and the shutters were bared’.

“’Pray tell me when exactly did your sister retire to bed?’

“’At her usual time of about 9:30’.

“’Why did your father go out upon the lawn and at what time?’

“’It was his usual habit Mr. Holmes, he went out every evening to
watch the sun set. This time he went out at about 7:10’.

“’And the time of your brothers death?’

“About 6:30 he was coming down to dine since we always take dinner
at about that time’.

“’I see. Hmm, well this case of yours Mr. Feldech is most certainly
a dark one. Pray, who is in charge of the official investigation?’

“An inspector Bradstreet, of Scotland yard’.

“’Ah, good, good. Well I shall be in touch with you Mr. Feldech, if
you will leave your address with me I shall be most pleased to call on you
tomorrow morning to pursue this investigation, if it does not inconvenience
you.’

“’Not at all Mr. Holmes. I am indeed most pleased that you have
chosen to take up my case. But do you not wish to discuss payment first?’

“At this I smiled and said that we could discus that at a later
date. Then he stood up left me his card upon the table and left the room. And I
had only been sitting here about twenty minutes since then when you arrived
back from your rather unfortunate walk”.

After listening to Holmes story I felt myself all a tingle inside
with excitement and fascination. This did certainly seem to be a very
interesting case indeed and I was still most disappointed not to have been here
to hear Mr. Feldech’s tale. But I could tell that this case would not be over
as quickly as some and that I would have ample experience before the end of
this particular adventure.

“Well Watson, what do you make of it all?” enquired my companion.

“Well, Holmes, it would seem to me that this Manticore spine was of
great value to someone and that they are determined to get it back and to make
sure Mr. Feldech suffers most horribly for his possessing of it. But as to how
these murders were carried out and left no trace in two cases and only a little
in the other, I cannot guess” said I.

“Yes, it most certainly appears to be a very interesting case my
dear Watson. But I do wish Mr. Feldech had come to see me sooner in the day so
as to allow us to get out there in the same day. But we shall most certainly be
with our client in Dorset tomorrow morning, but for now there are a few
enquiries I can set afoot in the little light we have left in the day”.

And with that Holmes stood up and was out the door and down the
stairs in an eye blink and I heard the front door close behind Holmes as he set
off into the London streets.

To be continued.....

Well that's all from me, the story itself is almost done but I'm afraid the second part may not go up next week and in fact may be replaced by a post to do with some far more 'alien' creations.